tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24056983369563738162024-02-07T06:09:20.134-08:00silver spring transit center"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." - Abraham Lincoln PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-85802834056703766522019-04-07T02:05:00.001-07:002019-04-07T02:05:52.120-07:00PEretired: pulte homes, silver spring transit center, alan toothman construction, inc., shenandoah county, virginia, customer talk, good, bad & ugly, minds of mush<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://peretired.blogspot.com/">http://peretired.blogspot.com/</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://silverspringtransitcenter.blogspot.com/">http://silverspringtransitcenter.blogspot.com</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://customertalk.blogspot.com/">http://customertalk.blogspot.com</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://mindsofmush.blogspot.com/">http://mindsofmush.blogspot.com</a></span><br />
<a href="http://peretiredgoodbadugly.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">http://peretiredgoodbadugly.blogspot.com</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-8424230695782321022017-07-18T01:23:00.003-07:002017-07-18T08:59:59.572-07:00Montgomery County Md's Isiah Leggett: county executive or self-appointed land development guru?<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">one has to wonder about the wisdom of an elected county executive who, in his legacy building, rejects widespread and time-tested good-government practices in favor of "innovative" land development schemes. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">specifically, one has to wonder about Isiah Leggett, Montgomery County MD's county executive.</span><br />
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<i style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">"But nearly a decade in, as Leggett (D) nears the end of his 12-year tenure, this signature project has not gone forward as expected. Only a fraction of the money anticipated from land sales to private developers has been paid so far. And the county’s difficulty in finding a new site for a school system bus depot has slowed progress on a major portion of the planned Shady Grove community, including a new park and elementary school.</i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Critics on the County Council say Leggett overpromised and underdelivered, adding to the county’s $3.2 billion debt by borrowing against land sales proceeds that have yet to materialize.</i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">“This is just not a good news story,” said Council President Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), one of three council incumbents running for county executive in the 2018 Democratic primary.</i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">But Leggett says he devised a creative way to replace outdated buildings and pursue transit-oriented development policies far more quickly, and effectively, than had been done in the past. Even his own staff was skeptical, he recalled in an interview.</i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">“I was the sole person who believed we could move all these pieces,” he said. “You can argue that a few dollars didn’t come in at the precise time. . . . The county comes out far ahead in the long-term.”</i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Council member George Leventhal (D-At Large) said it was “not good planning” to jump into the development venture without knowing where the depot would be moved.</span></i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I don’t think it’s something we can foist on a community just to transform a Metro station,” said Leventhal, also a candidate to succeed Leggett as county executive.</span></i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Shady Grove initiative has generated an unexpected level of debt. Most big capital improvements, like roads and schools, are financed through the sale of general obligation bonds, where principal and interest are usually paid off over 20 years. But the Leggett administration, interested in moving quickly and anticipating that land-sales proceeds would soon be in hand, kept the smart growth projects out of the capital budget, opting instead to use $200 million in short-term loans on which it only paid interest. Such interim financing is meant to be retired quickly, to avoid added expense for taxpayers. But the county is still carrying a balance of about $160 million.</span></i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Looking for funds to pay off some of the debt, Montgomery officials announced last month that they may use the $22 million netted from settlement of the county’s lawsuit against the designer and builders of the Silver Spring Transit Center.</span></i><br />
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<i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The county could also sell more bonds to convert the debt from short-term to long-term. But that would crowd out other construction projects in the capital budget, which caps new bond debt at $340 million annually.</span></i><i style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">”</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/isiah-leggetts-signature-plan-for-shady-grove-is-less-lucrative-than-promised/2017/07/17/b3ce5a06-6655-11e7-9928-22d00a47778f_story.html?utm_term=.045f063e7758">Isiah Leggett’s signature plan for Shady Grove is less lucrative than promised - The Washington Post</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it didn't work out for the "monumental debacle" public-private partnership paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it didn't work out for the silver spring arena (</span><a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/Proposed-Silver-Spring-Arena-Fails-To-Generate-Developer-Interest/">Proposed Silver Spring Arena Fails To Generate Developer Interest - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> ). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and, it hasn't worked out for Isiah Leggett’s signature plan for Shady Grove.</span><br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Leggett_20091001_104316.jpg/220px-Leggett_20091001_104316.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="220" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Leggett_20091001_104316.jpg/220px-Leggett_20091001_104316.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-9895951298012742682017-07-16T03:52:00.001-07:002017-07-16T03:59:02.046-07:00the story of the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center: march 2013 to now<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">construction problems with the silver spring transit center became public in march 2013. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/concrete-issues-at-the-silver-spring-transit-center/2013/03/26/bdb758ee-966e-11e2-8b4e-0b56f26f28de_graphic.html?utm_term=.fd20736825a3">Concrete issues at the Silver Spring Transit Center - The Washington Post</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I began this blog in october 2013. </span><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">in a post dated august 2014 I said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Much of the media's (print, TV, radio, internet) coverage of this story has revolved around politics--Republicans blame Democrats, etc. However, the SSTC isn't a story about politics. </span></span><br />
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<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The SSTC is a story about serious failures in design and construction of a public work. </span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The SSTC is a story about how government has wasted taxpayer money. (53% of the funding for the SSTC are federal funds, meaning ALL taxpayers, from coast to coast, are paying for this seriously flawed lemon. 11% are MD funds and the remaining 36% are Montgomery County funds.)</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The SSTC is a story about public safety for those who will use it--if it ever opens.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The SSTC is a story about government accountability in protecting the public's investment and their safety.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The SSTC is a story about how government deviated from the tried and true, competitive methods for selecting a contractor (bids) and for selecting a design engineer and a concrete inspector and tester (multiple firms <u>competing</u> for the project).</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;">The REAL story of the SSTC has yet to be told in the hundreds of media reports over the past year and a half. The real story of how and why Montgomery County selected the SSTC's contractor/builder, the design engineer and the concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector has not been made pubic."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://silverspringtransitcenter.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-untold-story-of-silver-spring.html">silver spring transit center: The untold story of the Silver Spring Transit Center</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it's been more than four years since construction problems with the silver spring transit center became public. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">has the real story of the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center been told? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">what are its lessons? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">most importantly, have the lessons been learned?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvDVqVhf0jqliswVxo4OQgwGkFbRv_MVSjSeh_fziZufuKEubKA59H7Qxp1qemHxj_0lVhVgtxlyHCCabOC7kj-cdLZMFaRW0UM-bmn0Yl4QcOPBQlMwTKZYlqmrvfii6zePVCfwOvT1Q/s1600/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvDVqVhf0jqliswVxo4OQgwGkFbRv_MVSjSeh_fziZufuKEubKA59H7Qxp1qemHxj_0lVhVgtxlyHCCabOC7kj-cdLZMFaRW0UM-bmn0Yl4QcOPBQlMwTKZYlqmrvfii6zePVCfwOvT1Q/s400/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-36393129214455766662017-07-14T15:27:00.001-07:002017-07-15T04:20:13.025-07:00taxpayers lose in the paul s sarbanes silver spring transit center "monumental debacle"<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/montgomery-countys-expensive-private-attorneys/2017/07/14/76491a10-5ab9-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.38f9e715c84f">Montgomery County’s expensive private attorneys - The Washington Post</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">my comment:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"well said. ... the transit center suit looked to me like a case of legal chicken. on one side: the owner, Montgomery County--the hand that feeds private engineers and construction contractors. on the other side: the private engineering firm, the general contractor, subcontractors, the private inspection and materials testing firm, their big-pocket insurance carrier(s) and the insurance carriers' lawyers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <br />The case was complicated by Montgomery County taking on the role of construction manager for the project. The county may have thought that they had a good case; but, if one "reads between the lines" of the KCE report (the private engineering firm that the county hired to investigate the engineering and construction problems), then the county's case wasn't as strong as the county made it out to be. Perhaps the county was counting on the "don't bite the hand that feeds you" principle, or the "deep pockets" principle or "my hired guns are bigger than your hired guns" principle; but in the end, it looks to me like the county rolled the dice, and they came up snake eyes. all were at fault, including the county."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center "monumental debacle" is a classic case of what happens when politicians play with house money. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Taxpayers--federal, state and local--lose.</span><br />
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image: misc 24</div>
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snake_eyes_dice.jpg">File:Snake eyes dice.jpg - Wikimedia Commons</a></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-53834561330454657572017-07-13T01:12:00.001-07:002017-07-15T01:54:59.622-07:00Metro's mismanagement by committees of politicians who know nothing about running a successful railroad <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://wamu.org/story/17/07/12/metro-board-verge-major-overhaul/">Metro Board On Verge Of Major Overhaul | WAMU</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">my comment:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">you can't run a successful railroad, or anything else for that matter, by committee--<u>especially, 3 committees of politicians from different jurisdictions</u>--4 if you include the federal government. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">been there; done that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">let's try something different than the abysmal failure of management-by-political-committees that resulted in ruining a state-of-the-art transit system in just 40 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">let's get someone(s) who knows something about running a successful railroad, and put them in charge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">maybe they'll be able to bring metro back from the dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-46172193225456695022017-06-27T11:56:00.001-07:002017-06-27T12:11:20.202-07:00the gift that just keeps on giving<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Montgomery Co. approves millions more for Silver Spring Transit Center fight</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/06/14400706/">http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/06/14400706/</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>congratulations to sucker taxpayers. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>(that's <u>ALL</u> of us--federal, state and local)</b></span></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-65921117305183867972017-06-09T03:11:00.000-07:002017-06-09T03:35:07.759-07:00 Déjà vu all over again--Metro and the Silver Spring Transit Center<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The stories are similar; the endings are the same: </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a "monumental debacle" public works project that is 5 years over schedule, tens of millions over budget and is flawed by design, construction and inspection "errors and omissions"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">a once state-of-the-art subway system, only 40 years old (a baby as far as subway systems go), plagued by serious safety, operations and maintenance problems, ruined by public and private incompetence in the form of mismanagement, neglect and political malfeasance</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Who pays for these disasters?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We taxpayers do--all of us. No one goes to jail. No one loses their job. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Once again, we're left holding the bag.</span></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-78267360212339524292017-06-03T01:17:00.000-07:002017-06-03T05:12:23.310-07:00a juror's comment on the Silver Spring Transit Center trialJuror 97 • <br />
As a Juror on the trial, don't believe what you read. Mismanagement and bad decisions by county are main factor to issues. The county would have lost.<br />
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PEretired <a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/County-Agrees-To-Settle-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/#comment-3336861321"> </a><br />
thanks for your juror's perspective. from an engineer's perspective, without the benefit of witnessing the trial, I see all parties at fault. KCE's report made that pretty clear to me (even though IMHO KCE went easy on the county's mismanagement). However, after the cracks became public, all the way to the trial, all we got from the media was the county's perspective. Insurance companies and their lawyers have a big impact on how these issues are settled. IMHO the settlement is about money, not who is to blame.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/County-Agrees-To-Settle-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/">County Agrees To Settle Silver Spring Transit Center Lawsuit - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD</a></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You can fool</span></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i> all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."</i> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Abraham Lincoln </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCoB9qO1SZSS73t4a_Ksl2cY-6hzJmWGuEelVv2eH_CSdiPtsYeiOyfqqVqIdm1dUyhpRtenxZIrvnTxDw2vsVPnMCvhj3SXR1n7PGMjzXKiWf6Iomenv78HyprKxb_jhR8jJEDiYwA2P/s1600/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCoB9qO1SZSS73t4a_Ksl2cY-6hzJmWGuEelVv2eH_CSdiPtsYeiOyfqqVqIdm1dUyhpRtenxZIrvnTxDw2vsVPnMCvhj3SXR1n7PGMjzXKiWf6Iomenv78HyprKxb_jhR8jJEDiYwA2P/s400/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-87497798097870724302017-06-02T01:34:00.001-07:002017-06-02T01:37:22.852-07:00can secret settlements save fubar metro?<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"Metro, which now operates the center after the county turned it over to the transit agency, was originally part of the case, but settled just before the trial, according to 'The Daily Record'."</i> Really??? Where are all of the reporters who were reporting every statement that David Dise made for years, after the cracks became public, but before the SSTC was opened to the public? <b>Isn't WMATA settling the case news? how much was the settlement? who paid whom? what are the details? are there conditions? the public has a right to know.</b></span><br />
<a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/Trial-Begins-in-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/">Trial Begins in Silver Spring Transit Center Lawsuit - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">that's one. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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"Settlement equals cash. Since we all know that cash does not grow on trees, it has to come from somewhere: That’s were your purse comes in. Every year, you pay DC taxes. Every year, the DC government provides WMATA a subsidy derived from DC tax dollars.<br />
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Call me crazy, but if DC tax dollars are being used to settle a lawsuit then I think we, as DC tax payers, should have a right to know how our money is being spent."<br />
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K. Denise Rucker Krepp is the ANC 6B10 commissioner.</div>
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<a href="https://thehillishome.com/2017/05/wmata-settlements-tax-dollars/">The Hill is Home | WMATA Settlements and Your Tax Dollars | The Hill is Home</a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">that's two.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s1600/metro+fubar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s320/metro+fubar.png" width="258" /></a></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-50626188913600387042017-05-30T21:37:00.001-07:002017-06-01T01:31:02.279-07:00some details emerge in the Silver Spring Transit Center lawsuit settlement<a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/County-Agrees-To-Settle-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">County Agrees To Settle Silver Spring Transit Center Lawsuit - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">my comment: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">there are no winners here. the biggest losers in this "monumental debacle", as councilman Phil Andrews aptly put it, are county, state and federal taxpayers who, in the end, will pay millions for cost overruns that resulted from poor engineering, construction and inspection, and from the lawsuit. All parties, including Montgomery County, construction manager of record for the project, are responsible for this debacle.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCoB9qO1SZSS73t4a_Ksl2cY-6hzJmWGuEelVv2eH_CSdiPtsYeiOyfqqVqIdm1dUyhpRtenxZIrvnTxDw2vsVPnMCvhj3SXR1n7PGMjzXKiWf6Iomenv78HyprKxb_jhR8jJEDiYwA2P/s1600/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCoB9qO1SZSS73t4a_Ksl2cY-6hzJmWGuEelVv2eH_CSdiPtsYeiOyfqqVqIdm1dUyhpRtenxZIrvnTxDw2vsVPnMCvhj3SXR1n7PGMjzXKiWf6Iomenv78HyprKxb_jhR8jJEDiYwA2P/s400/8059027679_8b4558dbc8_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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"The lawsuit has gone through numerous twists and turns since it was filed by the county in August 2015. Pretrial discovery and preliminary hearings on a blizzard of motions filed by the county and the defendants took more than a year.</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #111111; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18px;">Leggett and other county officials familiar with the case said there were several reasons for pursuing a sett</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #111111; font-family: georgia; font-size: 18px;">In March, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael Mason threw out the county’s allegations of fraud and its demand for punitive damages against the contractors. Mason also ruled that if the county won, it could not collect costs for attorneys or consultants. The county hired outside attorneys for the case, costing millions in fees. Montgomery’s main outside consultant to investigate problems with the project, </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/silver-spring-transit-centers-inspectors-ran-poor-concrete-tests-report-says/2013/03/26/846fa820-931c-11e2-a31e-14700e2724e4_story.html?utm_term=.13a7554161c5" shape="rect" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; font-family: georgia; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; zoom: 1;">KCE Structural Engineers,</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #111111; font-family: georgia; font-size: 18px;"> alone cost $8.5 million.</span></div>
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After Mason’s decision, county lawyers were left to pursue about $40 million in claims for breach of contract and cost overruns.</div>
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The county also faced an $11 million counterclaim from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/builders-of-silver-spring-transit-center-slam-montgomery-lawsuit/2015/09/11/207c53b4-5894-11e5-b8c9-944725fcd3b9_story.html?utm_term=.2733e6125ed7" shape="rect" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; text-decoration-line: none; zoom: 1;">Foulger-Pratt</a>, seeking costs that the firm said were incurred by county delays and the addition of a new two-inch layer of concrete on the transit center roadways.</div>
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From the outside, the transit center looks like a nondescript garage. But its unusual racetrack-like oval design, on land with multiple elevations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-silver-springs-transit-center-plan-grew-into-a-fiasco/2013/05/20/7f2fb1c6-b986-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html?utm_term=.adf3746f8211" shape="rect" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; text-decoration-line: none; zoom: 1;">increased the complexity</a> of the project. The concrete structure, expected to withstand the stresses produced by an estimated 120 buses an hour barreling to 32 bays, was “post-tensioned” with steel supports embedded in the concrete.</div>
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Problems first emerged in April 2010, when Georgios Mavrommatis, who examines plans for the county, looked at drawings of a long, curved wall on the northeast side of the building. He saw that there was no provision for slip joints where the floor met the wall. Engineers use slip joints to allow a building to move under stress, such as when a heavy bus rolls by.</div>
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Douglas Lang, Parsons Brinckerhoff’s main engineer on the project, expressed confidence that the design was sound without the joints.</div>
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The settlement is outlined in two documents the county released Tuesday. In one, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balter agree to pay the county $25 million. In the other, the county agrees to pay Foulger-Pratt $3 million. Neither the companies nor the county acknowledge any negligence or wrongdoing. A non-disparagement clause also prevents the parties from saying anything critical about each other going forward.</div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/settlement-agreement-and-release-between-pb-facchina-balter-and-county/2451/" shape="rect" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; text-decoration-line: none; zoom: 1;">Read the settlement here between PB, Facchina, Balter and county</a>]</i></div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">[<a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/settlement-and-release-agreement-between-foulger-pratt-and-county/2452/" shape="rect" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; text-decoration-line: none; zoom: 1;">Read the settlement here between Foulger-Pratt and the county</a>]</i></div>
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Metro, which also sued the contractors in 2015, settled its case shortly before the trial began. The terms are not known. The transit center has operated safely since opening in the summer of 2015.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.02em;">Before the settlement was announced, the trial in Mason’s courtroom was a remarkable scene, with as many as 13 lawyers crammed among five tables where there are usually two. When all attorneys approached the bench for conferences — a frequent occurrence with multiple defendants — it looked like a kind of legal rush hour. Mason kept a tight lid on the proceedings, barring attorneys from discussing the case outside court and ordering the county to scrub its website of information about the transit center’s problems so jurors couldn’t do their own research.</span></div>
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Each party tried to dominate the narrative, mostly by pointing fingers. The county said it had every reason to trust the contractors it hired. Foulger-Pratt said a faulty, incomplete design by Parsons Brinckerhoff and delays created by the county made it impossible to do the job in a timely manner. Parsons Brinckerhoff contended that the county rushed the project.</div>
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The flurry of arguments thrust the jury a into a netherworld of construction arcana, with disquisitions from attorneys on slab thickness, torsion and shear and axial stiffness.</div>
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While the county requested a jury trial, there were signs that it may have been losing confidence in the jury’s ability to sort matters out in the county’s favor.</div>
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“I look over all the time and wonder how this hits them,” William Nussbaum, one of the outside attorneys hired by the county, said at a bench conference out of the jury’s earshot last week. “I wonder if, you quiz them now, they could tell you what’s going on here.”</div>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-silver-spring-transit-center-contractors-settle-lawsuit/2017/05/30/03618400-4566-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.2bdd2ceb18b8">Silver Spring Transit Center contractors, Montgomery County settle lawsuit over late, overbudget project - The Washington Post</a></div>
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my comment:<br />
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "franklinitcprolight" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">good job, Mr. Turque; thanks for your report. not only is it informative, but your descriptions are priceless. "When all attorneys approached the bench for conferences — a frequent occurrence with multiple defendants — it looked like a kind of legal rush hour. ... The flurry of arguments thrust the jury into a netherworld of construction arcana..." If everybody in this fiasco had done their job--engineers engineer, contractors construct, inspectors inspect and construction managers manage--like you write, then the SSTC would have been structurally sound, on time, and on budget.</span><br />
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-50929042855483125562017-05-30T13:24:00.001-07:002017-05-31T02:46:47.619-07:00the SSTC lawsuit is settled. will details follow?<h1 class="title" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #145e9d; font-family: Predige-Regular, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 28px; margin: 15px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">
MONTGOMERY COUNTY SETTLES SUIT OVER SILVER SPRING TRANSIT CENTER</h1>
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From County Executive Ike Leggett:</div>
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“I am pleased that the County has settled the lawsuit we brought to recover taxpayer costs associated with the repair and remediation of the Silver Spring Transit Center. This is very much in the public interest. The $25 million payment to the County will cover 90 percent of the hard costs we incurred to deliver a safe and durable Silver Spring Transit Center.”<br />
<a href="http://www.mymcmedia.org/montgomery-county-settles-suit-over-silver-spring-transit-center/">Montgomery County Settles Suit Over Silver Spring Transit Center | Montgomery Community Media</a></div>
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<ul>
<li>details to follow?</li>
<li>where are all of the media that were covering this story after the cracks first became public?</li>
<li>are we going to hear from the defendants?</li>
<li>are we going to hear from county, state and US taxpayers who funded the SSTC?</li>
<li>where are the investigative reporters and tough questions that were so absent from the media's reporting when the cracks first became public--and since?</li>
<li>is this going to be another whitewash telling only one side of the story (Leggett, Dise, et al)?</li>
</ul>
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we should know shortly.</div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-38555966627627211752017-05-25T05:42:00.002-07:002017-05-25T05:44:29.836-07:00WMATA/purple line decision: “incredibly disappointing, but not entirely surprising” MD gov. Larry Hogan<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://wamu.org/story/17/05/22/purple-line-potentially-hold-indefinitely-ruling/">Purple Line Project In Maryland Suburbs Delayed Again – Perhaps Indefinitely | WAMU</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">makes sense to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">why follow up the Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center "monumental debacle" with a project with highly questionable ridership projections and links to a metro rail system with serious safety, operational, management and funding problems?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s1600/metro+fubar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s320/metro+fubar.png" width="258" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-81944079097832688922017-05-20T04:20:00.001-07:002017-05-20T05:14:02.018-07:00$100 million trial that the media isn't covering<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">It's been almost two weeks since the trial over the Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center (SSTC) began.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">nothing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Two years ago there were <u>thousands</u> of media reports about the "monumental debacle" SSTC--cracks, design errors, construction errors, inspection errors, <u>HUGE</u> cost overruns, etc.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Montgomery County MD and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) sued the engineer, the contractor and the private materials' testing and inspection firm.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">The engineer and the contractor blame Montgomery County.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">One would think that with all of the media attention that the SSTC got at the time--and the <u>millions</u> of federal, state and local taxpayer dollars involved--that there would be <u>plenty</u> of media coverage now that the trial has begun.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">not so. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">collusion?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">the public wants to know.</span></span><br />
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<br />PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-72620774398405296712017-05-12T09:35:00.002-07:002017-05-12T09:36:43.201-07:00metro settles silver spring transit center lawsuit???<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"Metro, which now operates the center after the county turned it over to the transit agency, was originally part of the case, but settled just before the trial, according to 'The Daily Record'." Really??? Where are all of the reporters who were reporting every statement that David Dise made for years, after the cracks became public, but before the SSTC was opened to the public? Isn't WMATA settling the case news? how much was the settlement? who paid whom? what are the details? are there conditions? the public has a right to know.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/Trial-Begins-in-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/">http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/Trial-Begins-in-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit/</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s1600/metro+fubar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAw4IcGBWyBpbQaXipIXVQxT9UkjeJtgj-MHho2B4tqYkCURzIdn_V_VNHOZobawyI0PlVX5lnZk3MXD_zLZPJvC8K-2RWBhy6yt2MeaDU85_Nvpb47iJQdqucp27YLlc_wG1Wla9kRKR4/s320/metro+fubar.png" width="258" /></a></div>
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<br />PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-88876564548809094972017-05-11T01:38:00.002-07:002017-05-11T01:39:37.191-07:00judge warns lawyers not to discuss the case<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">thank you, News4, for being the only nonsubscription news source to report on the opening day of the court case for this "monumental debacle" public works project that was reported on exhaustively for years. The most telling item in your report is that the judge warned the lawyers not to discuss the case publicly for fear that a juror may hear. Does that mean that we will have to wait until the end of the trial for a juror to write a book before we learn what went on? I should live that long.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Opening-Statements-in-Civil-Suit-Over-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Delays-421916204.html">Opening Statements in Civil Suit Over Silver Spring Transit Center Delays | NBC4 Washington</a></span><br />
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<br />PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-51736781777003947502017-05-06T14:56:00.003-07:002017-05-06T19:37:19.927-07:00how to ruin a first class subway system in less than four decades<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">"The first portion of the Metrorail system opened March 27, 1976, connecting Farragut North to Rhode Island Avenue on the Red Line.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;"> The 103 miles (166 km) of the original 83-station system was completed on January 13, 2001, with the opening of Green Line's segment from Anacostia to Branch Avenue."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metropolitan_Area_Transit_Authority">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metropolitan_Area_Transit_Authority</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">It's taken less than four decades to ruin Washington DC's first class subway system. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">How? </span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">incompetent management</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">incompetent board of directors</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">interference from politicians</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">operation and maintenance (or lack thereof) policies, procedures and practices that result from incompetent management, incompetent oversight and interference from politicians</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.americanactionforum.org/solution/potential-federal-policies-improving-wmata/">Potential Federal Policies for Improving WMATA - AAF</a> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">completely misses the point. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 17.5px;">Fixing METRO requires:</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17.5px;">capable management </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17.5px;">capable oversight free from politics and politicians</span></span></li>
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<li>slim and none </li>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-87644805455860085372017-05-01T01:14:00.000-07:002017-05-01T01:14:33.892-07:00Metro mess<a href="https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/metro-daily-fail-amazing-pictures-wmata-action-april-28-30"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Metro Daily Fail: Amazing Pictures of WMATA in Action (April 28-30) - Washington DC, DC Patch</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif;">amazing! first weekend for this "new daily feature". 4 on Friday. 3 on Saturday. 0 on Sunday. (maybe there weren't any riders or trains on Sunday) it just goes to show that the public knows--and, tells it like it is.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-55928213045738124752017-04-20T04:09:00.002-07:002017-04-20T04:09:39.990-07:00no takers, no surprise for silver spring md. public-private project<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>"perhaps developers, after seeing what happened with the transit center public-private partnership, are waiting to see how the lawsuit plays out before doing business with the county."</i></span><br />
<a href="http://www.mymcmedia.org/no-takers-for-silver-spring-arena-project-county-says/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">No Takers for Silver Spring Arena Project, County Says | Montgomery Community Media</span></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thecourtyard/21594477521/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Buses Entering the Transit Center | Dan Reed | Flickr</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-15255707496741355992017-02-09T01:22:00.000-08:002017-02-19T04:07:09.660-08:00obfuscating the truth<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2017/County-Preparing-To-Allocate-42-Million-for-Silver-Spring-Transit-Center-Lawsuit-Costs/">County Preparing To Allocate $4.2 Million for Silver Spring Transit Center Lawsuit Costs - Bethesda Beat - Bethesda, MD</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"How far can 10+ million pages go in obfuscating the truth, particularly to the public? probably pretty far. The simple truth can be found in the report that the county commissioned from independent structural engineering firm KCE and the county's own inspector general report. 1. The county took on the role of construction manager itself. 2. a county building inspector identified concerns about the design during permit stage, before construction began; but, these concerns were unheeded. 3. cracks were identified early on during construction; but, these, and other problems, were not fully vetted until the KCE investigation and report, when construction was almost complete." </span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">like, Judah Lifschitz</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In 2014 Montgomery County councilman Phil Andrews called the Silver Spring Transit Center a <i>"monumental debacle"</i>. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://wjla.com/traffic/metro/silver-spring-transit-center-delayed-will-cost-taxpayers-even-more-money-102945">Silver Spring Transit Center to cost taxpayers even more money | WJLA</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He was right on the money! The Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center is a <i>"monumental debacle"</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Montgomery County and WMATA are just as responsible for the Silver Spring Transit Center <i>"monumental debacle"</i>, perhaps even more so, as Parsons Brinckerhoff, Foulger Pratt and its subcontractors, and the Balter Company. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #2a2e2e;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-51323334422706296212017-01-29T00:53:00.001-08:002017-01-30T02:53:14.559-08:00Trump isn't the only one making BIG claims<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i style="color: #111111; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">"In an interview this week, County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), a former professor and assistant dean at Howard University Law School, said the upfront costs are an inevitable part of such litigation. He repeated his vow to recover “every penny” of expense to the county, including legal fees."</i></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/legal-costs-mounting-in-silver-spring-transit-center-litigation/2016/11/23/42f290da-b01c-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.b30807bc789b">Legal costs mounting in Silver Spring Transit Center litigation - The Washington Post</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Montgomery can use its capital construction budget to pay for the transit-center lawsuit, which seeks damages against designer Parsons Brinckerhoff, general contractor Foulger-Pratt and the Robert B. Balter inspection company for negligence and breach of contract."</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Citizens of Montgomery County, Maryland and the U.S., </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is no "free parking" when a public works project, paid for by local, state and federal funds and users' fees, is botched. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><u>YOU PAY THE FREIGHT!</u></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.ccpix.com/">www.ccPix.com</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For Montgomery County citizens in particular, </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #111111; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Robbing Peter (capital construction budget) to pay for Paul (Silver Spring Transit Center cost overruns, including legal costs) results in less countywide public works improvements.</span></span><br />
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<br />PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-37473440381555457862017-01-05T04:05:00.001-08:002017-01-05T04:08:13.860-08:00blame<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">WMATA says that the track inspectors are to blame. The union says that WMATA management is to blame. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whatever the case, the public, who uses and pays for unsafe METRO, aren't to blame. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/dc/wmata-track-inspector-fired-for-being-a-whistleblower/382188684">WMATA track inspector fired 'for being a whistleblower' | WUSA9.com</a></span></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-53994468429519686582016-12-26T00:25:00.003-08:002016-12-26T11:56:52.297-08:00"... trial to begin in early 2017..."?<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 18px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The county doesn’t expect a trial to begin until early 2017, and estimates it could last a year to 18 months. Appeals could take two years.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Montgomery requires parties in the suit to enter “alternative dispute resolution,” or mediation, a process that could lead to an out-of-court settlement. But such a settlement makes it likely that Montgomery County would fall short of the 2013 reelection campaign promise by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D): that every taxpayer dollar spent fixing the transit center’s defects would be recovered.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>“It’ll be a challenge,” said Matthew J. Pavlides, an attorney for the firm Miles and Stockbridge who specializes in construction litigation."</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/silver-spring-transit-center-suit-tests-ties-between-metro-and-contractor/2015/09/17/67f6e7c6-58ae-11e5-b8c9-944725fcd3b9_story.html?utm_term=.a0863c9c0b44">Silver Spring Transit Center lawsuit tests ties between Metro, contractor - The Washington Post</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I predict that this lawsuit will be settled out-of-court--too embarrassing for the principals, particularly Montgomery County and its politicians, and WMATA (albeit it's difficult to imagine WMATA, with their record, capable of being more embarrassed than they already should be).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">PS Montgomery County and WMATA suing the contractor for negligence is <b><u>TWO</u></b> pots calling the kettle black! Montgomery County is construction manager of record for the Paul S. Sarbanes Silver Spring Transit Center; and, WMATA, besides being the county's "partner" in the project, was paid by the county to provide construction document and construction review. And, WMATA is..., ... with WMATA's record..., well..., it's WMATA!</span></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-30681395560583943832016-11-01T11:17:00.004-07:002016-11-01T11:27:22.694-07:00fixing WMATA<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The tension between growth and maintenance, of course, is not new. It has been a recurring issue at Metro for decades. Metro’s safety record -- which has long been criticized by safety inspectors -- came under especially heavy scrutiny after two of its trains collided in June 2009, killing nine people, including one of the operators. In its investigation of the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the immediate cause of the accident was a faulty circuit in the system that controls the trains. But a contributing factor, the investigators said, was the longtime “lack of a safety culture” at Metro. ... If six years of service disruptions failed to improve much at the agency, there’s real reason to question whether a year of safety surges and indefinite early closures will do the trick."</i></span><br />
<a href="http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-wmata-transit-problems.html" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-wmata-transit-problems.html</a><br />
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<br />PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-75937942501266525802016-09-29T03:00:00.001-07:002016-09-29T03:00:10.058-07:00WMATA<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">a very insightful comment to a very informative article:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">Oh to be clear, there were no </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">industry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;"> standards </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">in America</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">.</span><br />
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WMATA clearly had their own, internal standards. They just chose not to follow them! From<a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/Abstract_DCA15FR004.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="color: #222222;" target="_blank">the NTSB report again, page 4</a>:</div>
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The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was not following its tunnel-washing and insulator-cleaning procedure.</blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">So in a sense, it's even </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">worse</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;"> than it seems! WMATA went through the trouble to develop its own policies and procedures that (for all we know at the moment) were totally sufficient and maybe even high-quality. Then, for unknown reasons, the Authority stopped following them. This contributed to a death. Then, the Authority promised to start following those procedures. </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">Then</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; word-spacing: 0.55px;">, 16 months after that promise, it looks like that didn't happen!</span><br />
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Also, the references to stopping the washing for environmental reasons come from <a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAR1601.pdf" rel="nofollow" style="color: #222222;" target="_blank">page 42 of the final NTSB report</a>. The WMATA told the NTSB several things about the tunnel washing program and it's unclear (1) if it was actually stopped at any point and (2) if they stopped, why it was stopped. Overall, this isn't a favorable fact pattern for WMATA.</div>
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by WRD <span class="nw" style="white-space: nowrap;">on Sep 28, 2016 2:32 pm</span></div>
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<span class="nw" style="white-space: nowrap;">the entire article & all the comments: </span><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33662/on-thursday-the-wmata-board-heard-about-why-metro-keeps-catching-on-fire-then-on-friday-metro-caught/" style="background-color: transparent; word-spacing: 0.55px;">http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33662/on-thursday-the-wmata-board-heard-about-why-metro-keeps-catching-on-fire-then-on-friday-metro-caught/</a></div>
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PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405698336956373816.post-81035131852276153702016-09-15T01:30:00.001-07:002016-09-15T01:31:36.482-07:00more WMATA mismanagement<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33498/wmata-wants-a-private-company-to-run-its-parking-facilities-thats-a-risky-move/">WMATA wants a private company to run its parking facilities. That's a risky move. - Greater Greater Washington</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">another bad move by WMATA. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Can WMATA manage <u>anything</u> well?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>PE retiredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14766924705045392225noreply@blogger.com0